Kirkuk representatives in Baghdad fail to reach agreement

July 27, 2017 at 10:46 am

Parliament speaker Jaburi meets with Kirkuk representatives (24 July)

Karwan Salehi

The representatives of various ethnic and religious groups from Kirkuk did not reach an agreement for the 7th time in parliament over the provincial council election law, as the Kurds rejected several demands by the Arab and Turkmen groups.

On Monday (24 July) Parliament speaker Salim Jaburi met with the Kirkuk representatives in Baghdad but the meeting produced no outcomes and the parties agreed to meet again.

“The Turkmen and Arab representatives are demanding a special law for Kirkuk but we, as Kurds, can not accept that and we have stated that we will amend the section 37 of election law,” said Amira Abdulkarim, a Kurdish representative.

One stumbling block for Kirkuk representatives to reach an agreement is section 37 which deals with the distribution of provincial council seats and given Kirkuk’s unique circumstances and the lack of implementation of Article 140, the various parties in the province have not come to an agreement.

Election campaigning in Kirkuk (April 2014)

Hasan Turan of the Turkmen front says another meeting will be held to discuss the matters but insists that his party are demanding fair distribution of positions and seats in the province including the governor, the council members and the deputy governor regardless of the result of the election. “We have asked for a review of the records of the previous elections so no one can come from outside Kirkuk and vote and we ask to a have a special law for Kirkuk,” Hasan Turan said.

For the last 12 years, provincial council elections have not be held due to disagreements amongst the parties representing different communities in the province.

Prime Minister of Iraq announced that provincial council elections except for Kurdish provinces will be held on 16th of September but it is not clear if Kirkuk will be included.

The Arab and Turkmen communities are requesting for the normalisation of the status of Kirkuk and are in favour of barring those from voting who were not included in the 1957 census. Kurdish parties reject this position.